On Thursday night’s edition of Current TV’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann, host Keith Olbermann delivered another in his series of “Andy Breitbart Video Rage Mashups,” in which Andrew Breitbart‘s meltdown (not a literal meltdown; Andrew Breitbart is a person, not a nuclear facility) at CPAC is edited together with scenes from Hollywood movies, in this case, The Big Lebowski. While introducing the segment, Olbermann said that Breitbart would be appearing at a Republican event at the San Marino Club in Troy, Michigan on Saturday, “in case any local Occupy groups would like to see what kind of self-immolation they can inspire this time.”

Olbermann wasn’t suggesting that Breitbart would literally set himself on fire, of course. He was using wordplay and hyperbole to convey the message that Breitbart’s behavior toward the Occupy protesters in Washington, DC had been explosive in a metaphoric sense, and that perhaps the appearance of Occupy protesters in Michigan would precipitate a similar outburst.

He went on to instruct the Occupy groups to “bring your videotape recordings,” by which he likely meant any video recording device. Most common video recording devices don’t use tape anymore, but rather, some form of digital memory, and he seems to have misspoken when he said “recordings,” and likely meant to say “recorders.”

The segment was part of Olbermann’s regular Worst Persons segment, in which he uses wordplay and hyperbole on three selected people each day, to convey the message that he views their actions negatively. He doesn’t literally think they’re the worst people in the world. The others to be so honored (using “honored” in the sarcastic sense; being named “Worst Person” is generally not considered an honor) last night were Indiana state Rep. Bob Morris (R–Allen County) for his political attack on the Girl Scouts,and Wisconsin state Rep. Joel Kleefisch for casting votes on behalf of his absent colleagues, a violation of Wisconsin Assembly rules.

Now Ann Coulter and Keith Olbermann have a long history of despising each other’s guts, to the point where a Bullwhip, Chair and Pistol would probably be useful if they ever met face to face and were forced to openly talk about their differences. Like two competing lightening rods, both of these individuals are polarised to their respective ideals in a way that will never change.

As a young Trans-woman, I’ve heard my fair share of transgender-orientated jokes and rants from both conservatives and liberals. For some weird reason, we tend to be regular targets of ridicule for Conservatives, some feminists and parts of the gay community alike. Coincidently as I’m writing this, I’m receiving extremely cold stares from a gay guy who used to reside in my University Dorm and officially complained about my Transition last year. Transphobia can come from anyone, regardless of politics, location or sexuality.

Recently Ann Coulter launched an attack on MSNBC, pretty much calling Keith Olbermann a Mama’s Boy, Richard Wolffe a creepy androgynous “he-she”, and Rachel Maddow a dude. In a strange twist for a Journalism student, words cannot describe the disgust that I’m experiencing typing these comments out. They are examples of Transphobia in their most vile and blatant form. To the best of my knowledge, neither Maddow or Wolffe have commented publicly on Coulter’s remarks. Olbermann on the other hand has decided to trade barbs with Coulter over this, resorting to referencing Ann’s well known nickname, “Mann Coulter”.

Over the years Olbermann has proved to be a very useful ally for the LGBT movement and the Transgender community in general. Coulter on the other hand, has a vindictive streak within her personality, regularly showing that she’s willing to stamp on the weakest in society if it furthers her own social and political agenda. However annoying, offensive and disgusting it may be, hearing Transphobic remarks from Ann isn’t very surprising. Hearing Keith use Transgender people as a punchline against Ann Coulter however, is.

“All I have to say about Ann Coulter is this. If this guy wants to live his life as a woman I’m going to back his choice up 100 percent. Coultergeist, today’s not worst person in the world.”

Now I know that I’ll catch a lot of flack for this, but Olbermann crossed a line in saying that. Just because Coulter targeted MSNBC with Transphobic remarks, doesn’t give Olbermann the moral right to respond in kind, no matter how justified or satisfying such a return volley might be. At all times a media personality must take into consideration the ideals and values of their audience, while acting responsibly. With this particular story, I don’t think that Keith and his writers did that, as there are plenty of other punchlines that he could have used that wouldn’t have ridiculed one of the smallest and quietest minorities in the world. Both Keith and Ann’s respective tirades do nothing but promote an environment where transgender people are threatened with violence on a daily basis. The horrific murders of people like Angie Zapata, Gwen Araujo and Brandon Teena are testament to that.

Strangely enough, this isn’t the first time that these organisations have ignored issues concerning the Transgender community for political gain. Soon after The Task Force’s Creating Change 2010 summit earlier this month, I asked the Human Rights Campaign’s Diversity OfficerAllyson Robinson via Twitter what her organisation’s policies are towards Transgender people in the military and why there weren’t Transgender provisions within the Bill to repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’. After having to apply considerable pressure, I was then informed that the Transgender community is covered by a “Medical Policy” and that I should talk to “Knights Out” about it. For those of you who don’t know, that’s Washington-speak for “You are too controversial for us to consider helping with this Bill. Go away and be someone else’s problem”. This chain of thought is typical of what the Transgender community has been experiencing for quite a while, where HRC will only advocate for Transgender rights if it is politically advantageous for them to do so.

Ironically, as Transphobic as Coulter’s and Olbermann’s comments are, they aren’t nearly as offensive as the refusal of some LGBT rights organisations to stand up to them.

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Kate Doak is a Postgraduate student at the University of New England, Australia. Over the past several years, Kate’s changed genders once, academic fields twice and has developed a deep passion for radio broadcasting. When not posting for Tommy Christopher’s Daily Dose, she can be found at www.tunefm.net or on Twitter.

The host of Countdown has had a very bad week. Caleb and Jason lay out the case against Olbermann with lots of tasty sauces and seasonings which I recommend you sample, but it boils down to this: Olbermann got caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and now he’s trying to put the cookies back in the jar. The problem is, they’re all chewed-up and spit-covered. GE and Rupert Murdoch made a deal to silence the feud between Olbermann and O’Reilly, said deal to commence on June 1. Now that the deal has become public, Olbermann is trying to erase the cowardly way in which he complied with the deal.

On June 1, Olbermann delivered an emotionally impassioned speech about how he was going to retire his Billo feud, impressions and all, in order to make the world safe from O’Reilly’s murderous talk show. At the time, it struck me as the oddest, most overwrought thing I had seen Olbermann do.

The fact that he allowed his corporate masters to rape whatever journalistic integrity he had was bad enough, but to cover it up with an announcement from atop such an altitudinous mare turns walking this back into a journalistic Bridge to Nowhere.

While Caleb wonders how Olbermann still has a job, Linkins thinks he will pull through this episode. I agree with Linkins that this incident won’t end Countdown, but it hurts, and there are other not-so-good signs. Rachel Maddow bested her Countdown lead-in for the first time this week, perhaps a signal that the angry liberal niche is being overtaken by the chilled-out one.

I hope that Olbermann does adapt and survive. Despite his flaws, I remain a fan. I’ll take Howard Beale over Ted Baxter any day.

Going forward, he ought to stick to what he does best, which is everything butdelivering journalism lectures (how stoked do you think Dana Milbank is about this?). When you’re serving up (admittedly tasty) Hot Pockets, you shouldn’t act like you’re Jaques Pepin.

To the liberals who are skipping Keith to watch cool-kid Rachel Maddow at 9, I suggest making room for both. Sure, everything looks great now, but if the GOP makes a comeback in 2010, we’re going to need Keith around to spit a little fire.